I’m keen to see eyes peering out of mudflats . . . the creatures from the bog, the foraging carp, the bullfrog in camo, a Pacific chorus frog in a dewdrop.
I shot this photo at Blake Garden, just north of Berkeley in the Kensington Hills. My vision is tuned to anomalies and, sure enough,
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Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve isn’t haunted, but it’s a park grown upon the ghosts of California’s history.
In terms of our earliest history, the spirit of the Ohlone and Miwok people still permeates the land. When I stand on our remaining wild hilltops, I look to the expanse of tract development over what, by
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A Red-tailed Hawk rises with the thermals on the western slopes of Coyote Hills Regional Park. I snapped this image on the tail end of yesterday’s hike along the marshes and pelican ponds.

You’ll hear Soras more often than you’ll see them. But once in a while you’ll be lucky enough to experience both — when the characteristic Sora call precedes a visual of the Sora wading through the shallows. Soras are in the rail family, not rare, even if they are elusive. They share a lineage with
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A male Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) roots around just before dusk at the Nature Center in Tilden Park.

Squirrels are so pervasive they’re unexceptional to a lot of photographers. But I have squirrels to thank for not being utterly demoralized. Even when the wildlife shots are fleeting, generally, I can count on a squirrel to give me a good pose.

The Mud Cracks of Coyote Hills could be a family of mutants, living under the floor boards. But they’re not. They should be. This would be a better post.